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​

Damned Judge would not let me show evidence of perjury!

I was pulled over May 25, 2019 by a deputy in Alachua County, Florida for “suspicion” of DUI and because my right side TAG lamp was out. (My car has one tag lamp in the center!) He did NOT have his external mic working, and he should have. He told me he had been following me since before I turned north on 6th Street. He said he started following me because I had almost hit a cruiser that had been parked on the Avenue. Presumably Balbas had been the backup deputy on another deputy’s traffic stop, so that other deputy was likely parked in a travel lane, no flashing lights of any kind, his car would have been in park, so no brake lights, just headlights and taillights. I would have thought he was moving and only realized he was still as I got closer. As far as I am concerned, a parked car is no different from a pylon on a gymkhana course. You can get as close to it as you want or need to, but you’d better not hit it.  I found nothing remarkable enough to remember it. A moving car is a far different situation, since he can speed up or slow down or turn in either direction at any moment. Case in point: I was riding my bicycle on CR 18 in Union County at about 8 mph, and noticed a car behind me with his right turn signal on. He appeared to be happy staying behind me until we got to the intersection where he intended to turn. All of a sudden he made a square turn to the left lane. SCREECH!!!! Then a horn , I looked over and there was a white Ford F-150 on the left shoulder passing the guy behind me. Had the truck hit the car, I could easily have died. Balbas definitely had come up behind me at the 39th Ave traffic light northbound on NW 6th Street and after sitting back there, he finally moved up alongside of me. Ten – to – twenty minutes after he pulled me over, a backup deputy came along and told him that I had a headlight out. Balbas must have felt like the crow in that old French poem, Le Corbeau et Le Renard. “À ces mots, le coubeau ne se sent plus de  joie.” At these words the crow had never felt such joy. All Balbas had to do was put himself in a position where he could have seen my headlight out. I suspect he asked the other guy “REALLY? Which one?” and the other guy may have responded with a mildly confusing statement, like “Well, it was the one on my right.” Of course, he was FACING the front of my car! So deputy Balbas heard “right” and swore, both in his contemporaneous affidavit and at my trial in court, that he had pulled me over after having been eastbound on 39th Avenue, because my passenger side headlight was out! Of course, had he been on 39th Ave, he would have had a clear and unobstructed view of the front of my car, and he would have known which headlight was out! Thus he created a second lie out of whole cloth, to bolster his first lie, which was that he had seen my passenger side headlight out with his own eyes before he pulled me over. You can’t do that without criminal intent!!!! And since he is lying about his probable cause to pull me over, he had NO probable cause, and the state’s whole case goes away. He cannot hold me longer than a routine traffic stop without probable cause, so the field sobriety test and breath test must be suppressed! I told my attorney to question him as to where I almost hit a cruiser. I told my attorney that Balbas would have to move that north of 39th Avenue, and the most likely point would be where I moved back into the right lane. Balbas had noted that I hesitated before moving back to the right lane. Well, of COURSE I did, dummy! There had been a cruiser next to me at the light, and I am not the kind of guy who runs around, almost running into fully marked Sheriff’s cruisers! I checked my right side mirror, then my center mirror, then out my passenger window, then the rear passenger window, then my rear window, which wraps around to the side of the car. I did not see him. Then it dawned on me that he might have turned his lights off so I couldn’t see him, so I checked all of those locations to see if I had an unobstructed view of the area east of the curb. When I finally realized he was not there, I moved over. I know now that he was still sitting at the stoplight, almost for a full cycle of the light. When I moved back into the right lane, he was still back at the light! I hardly consider that close to hitting him, maybe a quarter mile or so between us! But when questioned, he responded that I almost hit his cruiser right where I told my lawyer he would say I did! That was his third lie made from whole cloth with criminal intent.
 
I sent my public pretender several emails, asking him to get GPS data or radio logs via subpoena duces tecum, but he instead sent a polite request to the local POLICE!  He supposedly then sent it to the sheriff, who ignored it. I asked him to depose the backup deputy, subpoena that deputy for trial, and sequester witnesses, none of which he did. The guy who wrote the arrest report stated, also under oath, that I had been driving with no headlights at all, and “was continuously drunkenly weaving over lane lines multiple times.” Note that continuously and multiple times are contradictory. Continuously means my path looked like a sine wave, while multiple times means that in between the four distinct lane changes that I deliberately made for reasons of courtesy and safety, I drove straight as an arrow up the middle of my lane. Apparently they teach these idiots that if someone changes lanes without signaling, they are drunk, so pull them over. One of my SREC bus drivers used to be a corrections officer, and told me that the course they give law enforcement officers about writing tickets is called CREATIVE WRITING! As a published author, I think of that term as being mostly for FICTION! When my driver’s side headlight had been sacrificed to a dead deer a few weeks earlier, the crinkled sheet metal must have caught the turn signal wire and shorted it out. So the correct denouement to this incident would have been a fix-it ticket for my turn signal. So deputy Purington enters the picture as the trained DUI officer. Balbas checked the NO smell of alcohol box on his affidavit, and did not check slurred speech or watery eyes. Purington skipped right over light smell of alcohol, and checked significant smell. You clearly would not expect a two-step jump between two trained officers who know what alcohol smells like. He checked slurred speech, even though he did have his external mic on, every word he and I exchanged is loud and clear, and there is not a slurred word to be heard! Then Purington checked watery eyes. Did I mention that I am one of FIVE MILLION US citizens who suffer from DRY EYES?  So watery eyes would have been physically and medically impossible! So now I can prove BOTH of these guys are guilty of perjury, WITH CRIMINAL INTENT! My public pretender did not want to accuse the deputies of perjury, and I most certainly DID! I got up to testify, and the idiot judge stopped me from going off on a tangent, and told me to only provide direct answers to my attorney’s questions. I view this as a very specific violation of my right to due process of law from the 14th amendment to the United States Constitution! Needless to say, I was unable to introduce any evidence of perjury. And the expert witness the public pretender hired for $175 per hour, portal to portal, was not as impressive as he looked on paper. He had to think about answers too often, he apparently had left a job with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement under strained circumstances, and he spent 90% of his time coughing with a dry cough that could have indicated the Delta variant or even Gamma variant of CoVid19.
 
I myself have another medical condition applicable to the case. I was taking Warfarin as a blood thinner, and that does not play well with alcohol. Just two months earlier, I went to the VA emergency room for blood red urine, two nights in a row. The first was caused by a double dose of Warfarin, but the second was because I had two beers while at a book signing, while still not fully healed up apparently. So I was VERY aware of the problems alcohol can create with blood thinners! I would not have had too much to drink. They stole my receipts for four drinks, but I was there for seven hours! Then Purington sat me down at the Intoxilyzer 8000. He explained how the test would be conducted, almost word for word from the manual. He stopped my first blow with half the breath still in my lungs. Then I saw him fiddle with the plug, and he had to enter his and my personal information for a second time. I did not know what was going on, but as a former motorsports photojournalist, I am a detail-oriented guy, so I made a mental note of everything that happened then, and logged it into the diary that I kept on the stationery they furnish for the inmates to use. Turns out the Intoxilyzer 8000 has a flaw in the firmware such that nothing is saved until after the test is concluded. There is only one reason for pulling the plug on that device, and that is because the first blow did not rise above the legal limit! Pulling the plug destroys every bit of data collected up to that point. He changed the breathing instructions to something he knew would yield a higher recorded blood alcohol level. But he apparently did not know that the state of Florida keeps track of the volume of each blow in liters. If you give the same subject the same breathing instructions for two blows a minute apart, you would expect the volume of air in each blow to be identical or very close to identical, and certainly closer than the blood alcohol level. The maximum difference in blood alcohol level with a blow of .120 and .125 is 16.67% using the .120 number. The difference in volume between the two recorded blows was greater than 28.4%, which is almost double the maximum allowable difference in blood alcohol level! It is my contention that even if I can’t prove he pulled the plug, the difference in volume is conclusive evidence that standard operating procedures for that instrument were NOT followed, and the test should be suppressed!
 
But because the idiot judge prevented me from referring to my notes, and prevented me from challenging any of the evidence presented by the prosecutor, the jury found me guilty! I could have handled this ticket through the veteran’s court system over two years ago, and avoided much of the penalty, but I refused because I knew I was not guilty, and that both deputies were provably lying while under oath!  And by the way, there were three five dollar bills and a Microsoft Lumia 650 phone which I had last seen on the hood of Balbus’ cruiser. Somehow they were never logged into my property when I got to the jail, and they were never returned to me when I left! And thanks to Purington’s outrageous lie about no headlights—and I had just embarked in a 30-plus mile journey on roads with virtually no street lamps—I spent 47 days in jail for a crime I did not commit! I would have slept in the car in the bar parking lot if I had no headlights at all! I had over a million miles under my belt in the 61 years I had been driving at the time of my arrest, with everything from two wheels to eighteen and some farm implements as well! You don’t ride as much as I have on two wheels without becoming acutely aware of everything around your vehicle. And you don’t put as many miles as I have in 18 wheelers without being able to ask AND answer the question “Am I good to go? Am I in good shape, is my rig in good shape, and is the road in good shape?”
 
I should note that I had spinal meningitis as a child, so I could never do the stuff physically that other guys could do. But when I got my first car—a 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster convertible, for $35, that needed a $5 fuel pump from Jack and Harry’s Auto Stores—everything changed. I could drive my friends anywhere they wanted to go! Driving became my passion. After I graduated from Mount Hermon School for Boys with honors, I studied mechanical engineering for three years, then dropped out to work as a draftsman before going back to school, but then the Army stuck its big bony finger in my face and said “We Want You!” My intention had been to go to the GM school of automotive design, so I could be the next Zora Arkus Duntov. But the army ended that idea, so I became a freelance motorsports photojournalist instead. In the mid seventies, I was listed on the masthead of “Cycle World Magazine” as their Eastern US Contributing Editor, so I was a pretty big fish in a very small pond! I was the Activities Director/Newsletter Editor of the Sports Car Club of Western Mass, Inc, so I laid out and drove in gymkhanas, I laid out and drove and navigated in rallies, and I actually drove an MGA Twin Cam—an all-out race car—on the street for several years. It was designed to race in the production class in SCCA Roadracing, so it had to be fully street legal. And I still have the Ducati 750 Sport I bought to celebrate my appointment to the Contributing Editor position at CW. My whole life has been centered on driving since I got my first license. And now I have gone more than two years without any transportation and without any social life (which mostly centered around performing at the Reverend Angel Dust’s Tabernacle of Hedonism on Wednesday nights at the Hardback Café in Gainesville.) Now I find I will have to put up with that for at least one more year because of that farce of a trial. The Founding Fathers of this great nation wrapped a whole lot of meaning into that phrase “Due Process of Law.” For one thing, it guarantees me the best possible defense! If the prosecutor is sitting on evidence that favors me, like Dashcam video, it is against the US Constitution to deprive me of the ability to show those videos to the jury in full. And what’s good for the goose is good for the gander! When I heard that I had a bond on my head because of that outrageous lie on the arrest report (and Purington admits in his affidavit that he drove my car that night, so he knew, reasonably should have known or had a duty to know, that I had at least one working headlight, AND that my turn signals were NOT working, so my lane changes were likely deliberate, and not drunken weaving!) I tried to argue that was a lie, and was told that I could not say that, because that would be trying the case! But if they can deny me a bond reduction because the arrest report says I was driving without any headlights, then in order to find me guilty AS CHARGED, they had better be able to prove I was driving without any headlights! That is what due process of law means to me! Saying I can be guilty because I blew over a .080 when everyone knows different people respond differently to alcohol is definitely not what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they spoke of due process of law!. If the charge is that my driving was impaired, you had better have evidence that it was impaired. My lawyer noted that when the blue lights came on, my brake lights came on immediately. No delayed reaction time! No impairment. And, of course, the recorded blood alcohol level was deliberately distorted by Purington. My blood alcohol level was indeed below the legal limit, or he would not have found it necessary to pull the plug and then change the breathing instructions. One of the prospective jurors was blacklisted by the prosecutor because he wanted proof that the Intoxilyzer was accurate! All you have to do is Google Intoxilyzer 8000 to see a wide variety of problems with it. (I also wish my jurors would have looked at the Fully Informed Juror site at https://fija.org. they could have learned about jury Nullification, sometimes known as conscientious acquittal. If you are ever called for jury duty, please check that out, and NEVER tell the prosecutor you want proof of anything! So I spent 47 days in jail solely because of that one outrageous lie on the arrest report! As a result, I lost seven of my eight cats, including the most innocent creature on the planet! Little Corporal, at 5-1/2 weeks old, was just starting to eat solid food and to bond with me. He would sit with me and lap up a slurry of canned paté-style cat food, powdered kitten formula, and water, then he would crawl on my shoulder and go to sleep with his legs wrapped around my neck. I had not had a shoulder cat in 15 years, and I was looking forward to growing old with him. If I could charge Purington with first degree murder for the death of that one kitten, I would do so in a heartbeat, and I would be happy to push the plunger myself! But sadly, Florida treats animals as property, not as a living being whose life has value. My cats are my shrinks. They love the sound of my voice, and they draw me deeper into every story, just like a psychiatrist would. Right now, with all I have been through, including suicidal thoughts on multiple occasions, I would not settle any lawsuit over this for less than eight figures for each defendant.
 
Back in 2011, the Sarasota Herald Tribune ran a nine part article about bad cops in Florida. They quoted the FDLE as saying the number one complaint against law enforcement officers of all stripes throughout the state of Florida, was lying AND PERJURY! Law enforcement officers have gotten away with this for so long, that it is now endemic in their community, which is what created the situation in Jackson County, and now Martin County as well, where deputies have been arrested for planting drugs in cars they had pulled over for minor traffic offenses. They are letting people out of jail there who were wrongfully convicted of drug possession because of the drugs planted by those deputies, and potentially, their victim list could be well over 400!
 
We MUST put a stop to this malfeasance by law enforcement officers!!!! For one thing, the number of cases where they have pulled the plug on the Intoxilyzer 8000 is so great that we should have something akin to a Dashcam that will record audio and video any time the Intoxilyzer is turned on, and then upload that video to the FDLE computer in Tallahassee. That will catch every instance of plug pulling, and make breath tests much more accurate and honest than they have been. And another must, is to recognize malfeasance by a trusted law enforcement officer as an aggravating factor, with a far stiffer  penalty than an ordinary citizen would face for the same act!
 
If anyone knows of an attorney who would like to make a name for himself by having a couple of Florida laws ruled unconstitutional by a Federal appeals court on a pro bono basis, or if you have had similar experiences with deputy Balbas or deputy Purington, please get in touch with me so I can keep a database in case it gets to the point where a class action suit would be appropriate. I have set up a special e-mail address for DUI related matters at [email protected].
 
  Add something about state response to our motion in limine
 
Add something about state gets more leeway as BAL gets closer to .08
 
Add something about enhancing audio on the Balbas video
 
  Add something about police unions lobbying legislators
 
 PTSD VA
 
  Nicki creative writing
 
  

Prostate Health update

5/31/2018

1 Comment

 
If I had any money right now, I would be celebrating!
Walk into doctor's office.
"Close the door," he says. I'm thinking, "uh oh, bad news."
"You want to know what we found in your second prostate biopsy?"
So I say "What?"
"NOTHIN'!" is his response.
"Your cancer's not growing, your PSA is up marginally. That means we wait a year before we even check your PSA, then unless it doubles, we wait at least 6 months to do another biopsy. Your cancer is not growing. If it gets to the point where you only have ten years life expectancy, we stop this watching your cancer completely, because it won't kill you."
Guess I need to get started writing my prostate health book! All of those supplements I have been taking must have done some good. When I heard that my PSA number had gone up (which I heard when I went in for the biopsy itself last month) I was actually worried that the cancer was getting worse. I was hoping for good news today, but did not really expect anything this good. My naysaying doctor won't ever admit that supplements could be responsible for my cancer disappearing, but then, no doctor would probably ever agree that a prescription for Metoprolol could have caused the cancer, either, and I am one hundred per cent convinced that it did. First, there is the proximity. I had no issues with my prostate at all. No going to the toilet several times a night, no serious sexual problems, no nothing. I get this prescription after I showed up in A-Fib one day, and within weeks, I have major problems all known to be prostate-related. No erection, no ejaculation, frequent urination, etc. I cut the Metoprolol dosage in half, and then in quarters, finally told my doctor to put me back on Atenolol, and he had no problem with that. (They had discontinued that drug after they couldn't find my pulse one day. Well, gee, doc, I am here, I am walking and talking, and feel great, I would assume that I do, indeed, have a pulse....) I also told my doctor that I wanted them to check PSA levels. They had been doing that regularly, and then they stopped doing it. They checked it, it was up, they checked it again in 30 days, and it was up again, so they scheduled a biopsy, which found prostate cancer. I then went a record of 128 days without an ejaculation. I started taking Saw Palmetto, which is common herbal that helps the prostate, and in particular, makes it smaller. After the biopsy found cancer, I started researching, and took Dandelion Root Extract, Selenium, and later, Turmeric, and sporadically some other stuff said to be good for the prostate, or to fight cancer. Now, some of these things have no upper dosage levels--they are strictly vegetable in origin. Others, like Selenium, are actually poisonous (that's a heavy metal), and so after researching it a bit, I cut that dosage in half, and increased the Dandelion root, and the Turmeric. I then tripled the dosage I was taking of Dandelion root, which was already at two capsules a day. One Canadian study about this had people taking a freeze-dried tea that was said to be six to ten times more potent (concentrated) than what you could buy in stores. The tea also acts faster. I also am certain that those people were taking more than one cup of tea per day, not sure how much more. But anyway, I could theoretically up the dosage to 30 or so capsules a day, but that would get very expensive. So I have been taking six caps a day. I also now understand that Turmeric becomes more bio-available if you take some pepper and olive oil with it. I may try to work some of that into my diet somehow. But I am convinced that these supplements do work, and that they are the reason for the good biopsy results I experienced. A couple of the things I take come from Lucky's market, and the rest from Wal-Mart. I kind of trust Lucky's more, but I can't afford to buy everything there! Since the Metoprolol also is known for unintended weight gain, and I gained back 30 of the 40 pounds I had recently lost, I am also taking Apple Cider Vinegar, Garcinia Cambogia, and green tea extract, in an effort to bring the weight back down. And I occasionally take grape seed extract, and pumpkin seed extract, and I try to eat a lot of red grapes--about one cup has as much Resveratrol as three glasses of red wine. And I take Omega 3 fish oil, several vitamins, Cranberry extract, Garlic, and a few other things--all in all I spent about as much on supplements as I do in cat food--at or above $100 per month! But I am convinced that the supplements are working.
​
I will start working on the book as soon as I iron a few things out in the Tee shirt Business. Did a little research the other day, will start writing the book this week (this is August 28th). The internet is really a mixed bag on Saw Palmetto, with some "experts" saying it does nothing to help the prostate. My experience says those guys are wrong! But since my PSA number was up on the day of the biopsy, I think I will try some beta sitosterol supplements to get that back down where I'd like it to be.... It will be next April before I have another PSA check unless I can talk my primary care physician into looking in to it....

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New Book Coming Soon

5/8/2018

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 We have decided that after more than two years in this business, we should know enough to publish a book on publishing. In addition to the book, we will have a membership website, thinking about $30 per month, may go up or down a bit from that, though. The website will include videos of John going through the whole process of creating, publishing, and marketing a book, from mindmap to marketing. It will include formatting, and show actual videos of negotiating the websites of all of our suppliers, including Amazon, CreateSpace, Smashwords, PublishDrive, Draft2Digital, and Lulu. This will become a top priority over the next few weeks. First, though, we have to get that new office built....
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